FCC backtracks, attempts to kill its own Lifeline Broadband program

April 25, 2017

The Federal Communications Commission has thrown its own Lifeline Broadband program into complete disarray.

Lifeline Broadband, a program patterned after the very successful Lifeline Assistance free government cell phone program, was designed to bring inexpensive, subsidized internet to America’s neediest residents, and to simplify the process required of companies who wanted to provide that inexpensive internet access. Oddly enough, it has been decimated by the Federal Communications Commission — the very same governmental body that conceived it, introduced it, tested it, and approved it.

All we can say is, what a mess.

Here’s how the tech savvy website gizmodo.com described the confusion:

FCC chairman Ajit Pai announced that he would direct the agency to eliminate the federal approval process for broadband providers who want to provide service through the LifeLine program, which administers subsidies for phone and internet service. That means any new broadband provider that wants to participate in the program will need to get approval state-by-state, which experts say will likely be an incredibly long and burdensome process. To make matters a whole lot worse, according to an FCC spokesperson, no states even have an approval process in place for broadband-only providers.

The FCC initially proclaimed that its Lifeline Broadband program would make it faster, cheaper, and simpler for internet service providers to offer subsidized internet to the poor.

Think of it as one stop shopping. Instead of being forced go through the expensive, time-consuming process of applying to provide internet service fifty times in fifty states, the new Lifeline Broadband plan was “federalized,” meaning that one national approval would allow them to provide service anywhere.

The FCC received applications from 22 companies that wanted to provide inexpensive internet service for the poor. It quickly approved nine of them and said it was going to fast track the remaining applicants.

Then it slammed on the brakes.

In early February 2017 it announced that it was withdrawing those approvals to reconsider the program.

This, of course, was long after it had spent untold millions of dollars and several years testing and analyzing the concept to confirm which plan worked best. After it had confirmed the rules. After it had made requests for proposals from internet service providers. After those companies had spent more millions of dollars on technical studies, upgrades and legal fees.

Now they’ve thrown all these internet service providers yet another curve ball by telling them that the rules upon which they based their proposals are no longer valid.

Fifty lengthy, complex, expensive applications in fifty states instead of one. Fifty time-consuming, stressful hearings instead of one. Fifty different jurisdictions asking for their own sets of changes and revisions.

Let’s hear from gimodo.com again:

Right now, roughly 3.5 million Americans receive subsidized broadband through the program. Last year, under chairman Tom Wheeler, the FCC issued an order that created a streamlined federal approval process for LifeLine broadband providers, meaning a provider could get a single federal approval to get subsidies for service in any state. That order also required LifeLine providers to include broadband service by 2021, and set minimum speeds. Nine providers had already been approved using the federal process, before Pai suspended those approvals earlier this year.

Proving that it has either a sense of humor or no shame, the FCC said these changes will “strengthen the Lifeline program and put the implementation of last year’s order on a solid legal footing.”

If you believe that nonsense, we have some swampland in Florida we’d like to sell you.

This crazy diversion will clearly cause lengthy delays as internet service providers are forced to go from state to state to state to get their applications approved. As if that weren’t problem enough, Gizmodo says, “…no state currently has a regulatory structure in place to approve LifeLine providers for broadband-only service, and an FCC spokesperson confirmed this.”

In other words, companies that had already been approved to provide inexpensive internet for the poor, but then got “unapproved,” can’t even reapply because there’s no one out there to whom they can reapply. As supermodel Heidi Klum ominously states on each episode of her Project Runway TV show, “One day you’re in. The next day you’re out.”

In the end, a program that was supposed to be up and running and helping America’s poor by now, may not be up and running for years.

Comments

Well after this was the reversal of the FFC’s rules on ISP’s privacy for broadband subscribers.

Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a service can be either a “telecommunications service,” like telephone service, that lets the subscriber choose the content they receive and send without interference from the service provider, or it can be an “information service,” like cable television or the old Prodigy service, that curates and selects what content channels will be available to subscribers. The 1996 law provided that “telecommunications services” are governed by “Title II” of the Communications Act of 1934, which includes nondiscrimination requirements. “Information services” are not subject to Title II’s requirements.

Under current law, the FCC can put either label on broadband Internet service – but that choice has consequences. The legal mandate was clear: if FCC wanted meaningful open Internet rules to pass judicial scrutiny, the FCC had to reclassify broadband service under Title II. It was also clear to neutral observers that reclassification just made sense. Broadband looks a lot more like a “telecommunications service” than an “information service.” It entails delivering information of the subscriber’s choosing, not information curated or altered by the provider.

It took an Internet uprising to persuade the FCC that reclassification made practical and legal sense. But in the end the cry’s of many succeeded: in 2015, at the end of a lengthy rulemaking process, the FCC reclassified broadband as a Title II telecommunications service and issued net neutrality rules on that basis. Resting at last on a proper legal foundation, those rules finally passed judicial scrutiny.

Now on the chopping block is Net Neutrality. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has proposed to reverse that 2015 decision and put broadband back under the regime for “information services” – the same regime that we already know won’t support real net neutrality rules. Abandoning Title II means the end of meaningful, enforceable net neutrality protections, paving the way for companies like Comcast or Time Warner Cable to slice up your Internet experience into favored, disfavored, and “premium” content. Those who knew what throttled internet meant – please read on.

What is more, Title II offers more regulatory limits than the alternative of treating broadband as an information service, at least when it comes to net neutrality. Where Title II grants specific, clear, and bounded powers that can protect net neutrality, theories that do not rely on Title II have to infer powers that aren’t clearly granted to the FCC. As proponents of limited regulation, these theories concern us, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (The leading nonprofit defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation).

The proper way to protect neutrality is not to expand FCC discretion by stretching the general provisions of the Telecommunications Act (an approach already rejected in judicial court), but to use a limited subset of the clear authorities laid out in Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.

Tell the FCC to Keep Title II and Not Undermine Net Neutrality !

The FCC has asked for public comment on new rules about net neutrality. Use this form to submit a comment to the FCC.https://dearfcc.org/

Steve PS: I have and hope you will to – as one voice is only a yell, but many together becomes a trumpet in a penetrating tone. Thanks : )

I think the big internet companies will do everything for eliminating cheap internet from a poor old customers. The companies like Comcast in NJ have monopoly in many areas and ready just to one thing – increase a price every year under any excuse. So may be one way to reach a cheap internet is a competition from companies with Wi Fi method transmission.

No company is perfect, Mark, but Comcast’s Internet Essentials program has probably provided low-cost internet to more low-income people than any other program out there. That being said, you do have other options. Check out PCs for People, 4GCommunity, and AT&T at this link:

I am appalled by this latest news. However, I did my own research and discovered that in California, AT&T offers their own cheap broadband internet program. I am currently a customer and I pay $10 per month for this service. It is high-speed (12 mbs bandwidth) and the storage limit is 1 tb. There are no installation, activation, or rental fees. The modem/router is supplied and installed by them at no charge. The $10 monthly rate is for this exact plan and there are no other services that need to be purchased to qualify for this rate. There are no taxes added. There may be a billing charge of some kind, but I signed up for AT&T’s AutoPay plan so that my payment is paid automatically from my debit card account, and this method adds no extra fees to my $10 monthly charge.

This program is called Access from AT&T. You can call them at Access from AT&T Service Center phone number 855.220.5211. The URL for the website for applying for this plan ishttps://accessatt.solixcs.com/#/home.

There are eligibility requirements. At the time I applied, November 2016, the requirements were that you had to receive SSI benefits, or that you had to have a California DPSS EBT card (which proves you receive food stamps). There were no exceptions to these requirements at the time I applied.

Once you are approved, the program continues for 4 years, although I believe you have to re-qualify every year, and they will send mail to you or email you prior to the recertification date to remind you and to tell you what the process is in order to accomplish this.

I also reside in California and I’m currently a receipent of Cal Fresh (food stamps). I submitted my application and was approved, but the cable company who serves the city of Azusa, CA currently monopolize the city and AT&T cannot proceed with providing me with the service. I am left without affordable internet service because of Spectrum…..

We’re going to run this comment because we HATE to censor reader comments, but we don’t want to turn CheapInternet.com into a forum for political bashing. In other words, no more political comments after the one.

I don’t see this as cutting the program. But a measure to stop some of the waste, fraud and abuse.by providers that exist only to cash in on subsidies. While making a harder to become a provider may affect customers in some fringe areas, there are already many providers available.

From what I read, the approval process will be moved back to the states, where it was before it was moved it to the federal level last year.

I hope the providers that are genuinely interested in helping, will follow through and become approved.

Im currently only making 200 month i get medical.sssistance and want to go back.to school i cannot afford a computer or internet i jeard of government programs but im lost could someone please contact me and help thankyou for sherry cell.240 602 **** email ********@gmail.com

SAD!! All the new administration knows how to do is cut, cut, cut, cut, cut programs that do assist challenge, disabled & low income individuals. I swear, I have never seen in all my life government that aims to destroy things just for the hell of it. Doing that is a wrong thing for those in control to do. So SAD!!

There’s a very simple reason for this mess. Most of the Lifeline Broadband regulations were assembled under the Obama administration. The final piece, the approval system, was not yet complete when the Trump administration came into office.

Because Trump and the republicans hate helping the poor, he appointed an FCC head that would kill the young program ASAP.

And now, they’ve done just that, unless states move quickly to save it, state by state.

TRUMP: Making America Great Again, one low-income person at a time, by eliminating Internet, healthcare, and later, housing assistance and disability benefits!

This is a kick in the dace! While I was glad that low-income families were getting Internet for the sake of the children, the biggest travesty is the disabled, who were never considered. Those of us that rely on Internet to pay our bills for lack of transportation, and disabilities. THis program needs to be re-vamped, and done right!

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